Adam Ingram: I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Defence has signed a contract worth around £450 million with BAE Systems for the production of, and associated logistic spares for, 28 Hawk 128 aircraft providing the Advanced Jet Trainer for our armed forces. The contract underlines the Government's commitment to sustain core aerospace industrial skills and technologies in the UK as set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy.
	The procurement of this world class aircraft will enable our RAF and RN fast jet aircrew to develop the skills they need to exploit the capability of the UK's fast jet fleet such as Typhoon. It is also good news for BAE Systems and its supplier and employees at BAES' Brough factory. The first aircraft will be delivered in 2008.

Derek Twigg: A central principle of the Government's approach to addressing the health concerns of veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf Conflict is that there should be appropriate research into veterans' illnesses and factors that may have a bearing on these.
	As a key part of that research, the Ministry of Defence has sponsored a Vaccines Interactions Research Programme into the possible adverse health effects of the combination of vaccines and tablets given to troops to protect them against the threat of biological and chemical warfare. The programme, which has been overseen by an independent panel of experts and veterans representatives, consisted of three main studies. The first examined the interaction of certain vaccines in mice and reported last year on 21 July 2005 Official Report, 117WS).
	The second, and main, study has been undertaken at Dstl Porton Down and involved monitoring marmosets for up to 18 months following the administration of vaccines and/or pyridostigmine bromide (the active ingredient in nerve agent pre-treatment tablets). Partial results from the study, covering cognition, muscle function, general health and sleep, were announced on 20 July 2006, Official Report, 37WS. Papers reporting the remaining final results on the immunological aspects of the study have now been published online in the journal International Immunopharmocology and can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/joumal/15675769. The papers report that the immune system had not been compromised by any of the treatments and that there was no evidence of adverse health effects due to the administration of vaccines and/or pyridostigmine bromide. The study findings have been independently endorsed. Donald Davies, Emeritus Professor in Toxicology Imperial College London, who chaired the independent group which oversaw the study, has commented that the study was well designed and conducted. Together with the expert immunologists from the panel, he supports the conclusion that the animals suffered no adverse health effect, despite exposure to exaggerated doses of vaccines.
	The final study examined whether staff from Dstl Porton Down who received multiple vaccinations during their employment have higher levels of sick leave than their unvaccinated colleagues. The findings, which are being made available today on the MOD website, show that staff at Porton Down who had received multiple vaccinations suffered no excess sick absence.
	The overwhelming evidence from the programme is that the combination of vaccines and tablets that were offered to UK Forces at the time of the 1990-91 Gulf Conflict would not have had adverse health effects. This has been a key area of concern among Gulf veterans and the results of the research should be reassuring to those veterans who have been concerned about the safety of the medical countermeasures that they were given. I hope too that it will reinforce confidence in the counter-measures that are offered today and in the future.

Stephen Ladyman: I have today published a consultation paper seeking views on a package of measures which propose changes to the way in which the Driving Standards Agency conducts its business to deliver a better service and improve the quality of the assessments they offer, and to ensure that the costs of the services provided are recovered in a fair and efficient manner.
	The proposals are grouped into three areas:
	Service improvements
	Safety related measures
	General fee increases
	Copies of the consultation paper and regulatory impact assessments have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
	The documents are also available from the DSA website: www.dsa.gov.uk or by telephone on 0115 901 5921.
	Those wishing to comment on the proposals have until 11 January 2007 to do so.

Tom Harris: I am announcing today that a new, simple zonal fares structure will be introduced for train travel within London from January 2007.
	The Future of Rail White Paper, published in 2004, announced our intent to work with the Mayor on rationalising fares and ticketing technology within the Greater London Authority (GLA) boundary.
	At the moment, there are several thousand individually-priced station-to-station rail fares within London. The system is complex and a barrier to introducing smartcard technology to train services within the capital.
	We have changed the franchise agreements of those train operators setting fares within London, to require them to replace the many different individually-priced fares with a simple set of London-wide zonal fares.
	The new fares will be based on the same familiar zones already used for Underground and Travelcard fares.
	Operators will be required to set peak single, peak return and off-peak return fares for journeys wholly within London on a zonal basis from January 2007.
	Operators will be required to set rail-only seasons on a similar zonal basis from January 2010.
	The prices for the new zonal peak singles and returns (and from 2010, seasons) will remain subject to the limits set by fares regulation. As a result, London commuters will on average pay no more using the new zonal fares than they would have done had current fares continued and been increased as permitted by regulation. Operators will not make a net gain from the change in these fares.
	The new fares mean that the same fares will apply in all parts of London. Passengers who have been paying fares below the London-wide average may find the new fares higher, whereas those currently paying higher-than-average fares are likely to find the new fares lower. Prices are being published today on the DfT website, and will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
	This simplification of London rail fares paves the way for Oyster pay-as-you-go smart ticketing to be rolled out across national rail in London over the next few years. As interoperable smartcards based on the Department for Transport-sponsored ITSO (Integrated Transport Smartcard Organisation) standard are rolled out outside London, passengers will be able to benefit from national through ticketing on all modes of travel to deliver truly seamless journeys.